Conventional methods of making absorbent articles, such as disposable diapers are well known in the art. These methods usually rely on attaching leg cuffs, containment flaps, and other elements to the absorbent article as continuous webs of attachment material. Thus a continuous strip of material, such as leg cuff material, is continuously applied to the shell of an absorbent article. This simple method allows for high speed forming of absorbent articles. Since material is continuously applied to the absorbent article shell, a portion of the material may be wasted or unnecessarily applied to portions of the absorbent article where it is not required. Further, the overall design and appearance of the absorbent article is limited by this method of manufacture.
In previous proposals, cuff materials were intended to be placed between the liner and the outer cover material. The difficulty of this proposal was that cutouts had to be cut in both the bodyside liner and the outer cover material prior to lamination and then accurately registered to entrap the cuff material. This process was considered too difficult to be cost effective and therefore was never practiced commercially. Applicant's process greatly reduces the complexity by placing waist and leg cuffs on an absorbent article web sausage after the bodyside liner, absorbent core and outer cover have been integrally secured to each other with the leg and/or waist openings cut out to form the unitary web sausage prior to cuff application.